Answer Key for Exam B

2 points each

Choose the answer that best completes the question. Read each problem carefully andread through all the answers. Take your time. If a question is unclear, ask for clarificationduring the exam.Mark your answers on the scantron sheet and on your copy of the exam. Keep your copy ofthe exam and check your grade with the posted answers on the course website and the gradeposted on D2L. You will have 1 week to ask for corrections.

1. The Exam Version listed at the top is:

(a) Version A

(b) Version B

(c) Version C

(d) Version D

2. The one property of a main-sequence star that determines all its other properties isits:

(a) luminosity.

(b) temperature.

(c) mass.

(d) spectral type.

3. A star classified as a K0 III star is:

(a) a giant that is cooler than the Sun.

(b) a supergiant that is hotter than the Sun.

(c) a main-sequence star that is hotter than the Sun.

(d) a subgiant that is cooler than the Sun.

4. In the quantum mechanical view of the atom, an electron is best thought of as:

(a) a cloud that is centered on the nucleus.

(b) a pointlike particle orbiting the nucleus.

(c) free to orbit at any distance from the nucleus.

(d) All of the above are true.

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5. Which of the following methods is NOT used to transport energy from the core to thesurface of the Sun?

(a) radiation

(b) convection

(c) conduction

(d) All of the above are important in the solar interior.

6. What factor is most important in determining a star’s position on the main sequenceand subsequent evolution?

(a) temperature

(b) mass

(c) pressure

(d) radius

7. Which sequence correctly lists the spectral classes of stars in order of decreasing tem-perature (from hottest to coolest)?

(a) A B F G K M O

(b) A F O B M G K

(c) O A B G F M K

(d) O B A F G K M

8. Which scientist ended up under house arrest because of his support of the heliocentricmodel?

(a) Galileo Galilei

(b) Johannes Kepler

(c) Isaac Newton

(d) Tycho Brahe

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9. Examine the figure below. What method of looking for extrasolar planets requires theplanet to pass in front of the star?

(a) radial velocity method

(b) direct imaging

(c) transit method

10. In the absence of air friction, a 0.001-kg piece of paper and a 0.1-kg notebook aredropped from the same height and allowed to fall to the ground. How do their accel-erations compare?

(a) The accelerations are the same.

(b) The notebook’s acceleration is 100 times faster than the paper’s acceleration.

(c) The notebook’s acceleration is 1,000 times faster than the paper’s acceleration.

(d) The paper’s acceleration is 100 times faster than the notebook’s acceleration.

11. In a spaceship orbiting Earth, two astronauts want to measure the mass of a mouse.How can they easily do it if they are in constant free fall?

(a) Place the mouse on a spring-loaded scale and weigh it.

(b) Measure the gravitational attraction between the mouse and a steel ball ofknown mass.

(c) Drop the mouse from the top of the spaceship to its bottom.

(d) Push on the mouse with a known force and measure its acceleration.

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12. Examine the figure below. On a typical H-R diagram, what are the stars that havethe hottest surface temperatures and the smallest radii?

(a) red giants

(b) red dwarfs

(c) blue giants

(d) white dwarfs

13. Which of the following did NOT require the use of a telescope to observe?

(a) spots on the Sun

(b) retrograde motion of the planets

(c) phases of Venus

(d) Jupiter’s moons

14. Once a satellite’s velocity at closest approach equals or exceeds the velocity, itis in an unbound orbit.

(a) tangential

(b) circular

(c) linear

(d) escape

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15. Examine the figure below. What causes molecular clouds to collapse?

(a) conservation of charge

(b) thermal energy

(c) self-gravity

(d) radiation

16. The spectral class of a star is related to its:

(a) luminosity.

(b) radius.

(c) temperature.

(d) mass.

17. Why is hydrogen burning the main energy source for main-sequence stars?

(a) Hydrogen is the most common element in stars.

(b) Hydrogen nuclei have the smallest positive charge.

(c) Hydrogen burning is the most e�cient of all fusion or fission reactions.

(d) All the above are valid reasons.

18. Stars are made mostly of:

(a) helium.

(b) hydrogen.

(c) oxygen.

(d) nitrogen.

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19. Which star in the figure below is closest to Earth?

(a) star A

(b) The two stars are the same distance.

(c) star B

(d) not enough information

20. How is the distance to a star related to its parallax?

(a) Distance is directly proportional to parallax.

(b) Distance is inversely proportional to parallax.

(c) Distance is directly proportional to parallax squared.

(d) Distance is inversely proportional to parallax squared.

21. What happens to the gravitational energy of gas as it falls toward and eventually hitsthe accretion disk surrounding a protostar?

(a) It is converted into thermal energy, heating the disk.

(b) It is converted into light energy, giving o↵ a flash of light upon impact.

(c) It is converted into potential energy as the gas plows through the disk andcomes out the other side.

(d) It simply dissipates.

22. Applying Kepler’s third law to a binary star system allows us to determine:

(a) the mass of each star.

(b) the system’s distance.

(c) the system’s total mass.

(d) the system’s brightness.

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23. The luminosity class of a star is related to its:

(a) distance.

(b) density or radius.

(c) temperature or color.

(d) mass.

24. What two pieces of information do we need to know about Earth in order to calculatethe mass of the Sun?

(a) The semimajor axis of Earth’s orbit and the mass of Earth.

(b) The semimajor axis of Earth’s orbit and Earth’s orbital period.

(c) The radius of Earth and Earth’s orbital period.

(d) The radius of Earth and the mass of Earth.

25. Which of the following is true about a comet that is on an elliptical orbit around theSun?

(a) The comet’s speed is greatest when it is farthest from the Sun.

(b) The comet’s speed is greatest when it is nearest the Sun.

(c) This comet’s speed is zero.

(d) The comet’s speed is constant because its mass and the Sun’s mass stay ap-proximately the same.

26. Conservation of angular momentum slows a cloud’s collapse:

(a) equally in all directions.

(b) only when the cloud is not rotating initially.

(c) mostly along directions perpendicular to the cloud’s axis of rotation.

(d) mostly at the poles that lie along the cloud’s axis of rotation.

27. Stars A and B appear equally bright, but star A is twice as far away from us as starB. Which of the following is true?

(a) Star B is twice as luminous as star A.

(b) Star B is four times as luminous as star B.

(c) Star A is twice as luminous as star B.

(d) Star A is four times as luminous as star B.

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28. The star named Capella has an apparent magnitude of 0 while the star named Polarishas an apparent magnitude of 2, which means that Capella appears Polaris inthe night sky.

(a) brighter than

(b) dimmer than

(c) as bright as

(d) no way to tell

29. The majority of the Sun’s energy comes from:

(a) gravitational contraction.

(b) its rapid rotation.

(c) helium burning.

(d) hydrogen burning.

30. Parallax is used to directly measure:

(a) distance.

(b) luminosity.

(c) velocity.

(d) mass.

31. Roughly what percentage of stars are main-sequence stars?

(a) 10 percent

(b) 60 percent

(c) 40 percent

(d) 90 percent

32. A main-sequence star is unique because:

(a) hydrostatic equilibrium exists at all radii.

(b) energy transport occurs via convection throughout much of its interior.

(c) hydrogen burning occurs in its core.

(d) it emits strong surface winds.

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33. Why do O- and B-type stars have weaker hydrogen absorption lines than A-typestars?

(a) O- and B-type stars are cooler than A-type stars.

(b) A larger fraction of the surface hydrogen atoms in O- and B-type stars is ionized.

(c) O- and B-type stars have converted much more of their hydrogen into heavierelements.

(d) A-type stars have a higher mass than O- and B-type stars, and they have morehydrogen.

34. The Hertzsprung-Russell (H-R) diagram (see figure below) is a graph of:

(a) mass versus brightness for stars.

(b) size versus mass for stars.

(c) luminosity versus surface temperature for stars.

(d) mass versus spectral type for stars.

35. In the proton-proton chain, the net reaction is that four hydrogen nuclei are convertedto one helium nucleus and are released.

(a) visible wavelength photons

(b) gamma-ray photons, positrons, and neutrinos

(c) ultraviolet photons and neutrinos

(d) X-ray photons, electrons, and neutrinos

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36. Examine the figure below. The interior zones of the Sun are distinguished by:

(a) jumps in density between zones.

(b) their modes of energy transport.

(c) their temperature profiles.

(d) all of the above

37. The Doppler shift can be used to determine the of an object.

(a) energy

(b) radial velocity

(c) temperature

(d) its size

38. Stars of similar temperatures but di↵erent sizes will have:

(a) similar luminosities but di↵erent masses.

(b) similar masses but di↵erent distances.

(c) di↵erent spectral types but similar luminosities.

(d) similar spectral types but di↵erent luminosities.

39. Star A is a red star. Star B is a blue star. Which is hotter?

(a) star A

(b) star B

(c) We also need to know the luminosities of the stars to determine their temper-atures.

(d) Color is not related to temperature at all.

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40. What do the Copernican and Ptolemaic models have in common?

(a) elliptical orbits

(b) Sun as center of the universe

(c) circular orbits

(d) Earth as center of universe

41. Which observations made by Galileo are actually inconsistent with the geocentric modelof astronomy and not just the general world view of Aristotle?

(a) craters on the Moon

(b) orbits of Jupiter’s moons and phases of Venus

(c) retrograde motion of Mars

(d) sunspots

42. What force holds planets in their orbits?

(a) air resistance

(b) electromagnetic

(c) friction

(d) gravity

43. When two atomic nuclei come together to form a new species of atom, it is called:

(a) nuclear fission.

(b) nuclear splitting.

(c) nuclear fusion.

(d) nuclear recombination.

44. All of the following are useful in determining the masses of stars in a binary systemEXCEPT:

(a) the period of the orbits of the two stars.

(b) the average separation between the two stars.

(c) the luminosities of the two stars.

(d) the velocities of the two stars.

45. The force of gravity that an object has is directly related to its:

(a) inertia.

(b) mass.

(c) size.

(d) density.

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46. What is the di↵erence between intrinsic brightness and luminosity?

(a) These are di↵erent names for the same property.

(b) Luminosity is how bright the star appears to us; intrinsic brightness is howmuch light it emits.

(c) Intrinsic Brightness is how bright the star appears to us;

(d) Luminosity is how much light it emits.

(e) Luminosity measures size; intrinsic brightness measures temperature.

47. When an electron moves from a higher energy level in an atom to a lower energylevel:

(a) the atom is ionized.

(b) a continuous spectrum is emitted.

(c) a photon is absorbed.

(d) a photon is emitted.

48. The spectrum shown in the figure below is:

(a) an absorption spectrum.

(b) a thermal spectrum.

(c) an emission spectrum.

(d) not any of these types.

49. The centrifugal force experienced by a body in circular motion is a reaction to:

(a) the force of gravity.

(b) the body’s weight.

(c) the force that causes the motion to be circular.

(d) the contact forces between the molecules of the material.

50. Hydrostatic equilibrium is a balance between:

(a) heat and rotation.

(b) core temperature and surface temperature.

(c) pressure and gravity.

(d) radiation and heat.

Extra Credit, You can only improve your score with these questions.

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51. What is your acceleration if you go from 0 to 60 mph in 4 seconds?

(a) 60 mph/s

(b) 15 mph/s

(c) 30 mph/s

(d) 8.5 mph/s

52. In the figure below, the force of gravity is drawn in the picture. This represents Earth’sgravity pulling down on the man. According to Newton’s third law, what is the otherhalf of this pair of forces?

(a) the floor pushing up on the man

(b) the man pushing on the floor

(c) the man’s gravity pulling up on Earth

(d) the floor pushing backward on the man

53. An observer outside our Solar System, who monitors the velocity of our Sun over time,will find that its velocity varies by ±12 m/s over a period of 12 years because of:

(a) Jupiter’s gravitational pull.

(b) convection on the Sun’s surface.

(c) Earth’s gravitational pull.

(d) the sunspot cycle.

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